Goodbye Carrie Fisher (with a special "bite me" to the year 2016)

Cliff_Forster · December 2016

We can all agree, 2016 has been brutal. Both Great Britain and America have lost their collective minds. So many tragic events in the news. Shootings, wars, racial tensions, riots, so many good talented people lost too soon (not to mention a personally awful year for me)... (don't ask, the less you know the better off you are)... and now... Carrie Fisher.

Icrontic is a beautiful place where we share certain passions with one another. Let's all say it together, if you don't love Star Wars, you are just freaking weird. I don't get you. Star Wars is so much more than laser beams and the force, it's a chunk of your childhood, it's a story that resonates with you, gives you hope, makes even the most jaded person cheer for the hero. In short, Star Wars is everything that is good.

Carrie Fisher gave us a performance that was so much more than a pretty princess. She was a trailblazer, part of the Women's liberation movement in the 70's. George Lucas was a visionary. A genius that dared to have women in his world be tough enough to pick up a blaster and contribute. Carrie Fisher was perfect for the role because in real life she was snarky and didn't put up with any shit. That came through in the performance that Lucas intentionally wrote as a strong female lead. Not afraid to get her hands dirty. Not afraid to mouth off to her knight in shining armor when he was acting a fool. Carrie Fishers Princess Leia represented a new kind of female role model, and I dare to say, it brought progress, making the world a better place for women. It's that important and it was no accident. George Lucas is radically progressive, he wanted that conveyed in his world. Women were not just for saving and making sandwiches anymore. Leia would shoot you in the face or would choke your fat ass with a chain when you had it coming. In 2016 that may not seem like a big deal, but that's because they dared to go there together. Leia saves Han in Jedi... Frankly, Han's stupid ass never gets out of the trash compactor without Leia, this is not accident, Lucas want's you to see this progression, and Carrie Fisher delivered it brilliantly.

Carrie Fisher also had an incredible amount of courage. She exposed her personal struggles far before it was fashionable to do so. She struggled with substance abuse. You didn't hear it second hand, she wrote about it herself. She struggled with mental illness and depression, you did not hear about it from some scandal rag journalist, she told us all about it. In a world that is so fast to judge, she had amazing courage to say, here is this thing a lot of us deal with, it's real, it's there, it's okay if you don't love yourself some days, it's okay to feel weak or imperfect, nobody is, and in a way that gives us all a little courage as we deal with the shit that life hands us. It's a little easier for me to say, yeah, I've never really loved myself, I've struggled with depression ever since I can remember. I joke, it's how I cope, it's how she did too, God Carrie Fisher was funny, just look at some of her interviews. That self deprecating sense of humor, perhaps hiding some pain. She was a complicated and beautiful person and I'm so sad that she had to leave us today.

2016, bite me.